Most people just attend events to enjoy the food, take pictures by the beautiful decorations and admire the whole process but they do not really know what goes into event planning, the processes and challenges that planners face in order to come up with the beautiful and eye pleasing events. Shining a light on one of the women who contributes a lot to event’s catering services is the owner of APHROBITES CATERING SERVICES. In an interview with us, she shared an insight on what goes into catering and all about her work.
Naana Adu Atefoe, is married with 3 children, a graduate of Marketing, an Administrative Secretary and Chief Servant of Aphrobites Catering Services. Her catering services started from nine years ago unofficially but was established officially four years yesterday. The name, Aphrobites was born from her name Aphrodite meaning goddess of love and beauty so it came naturally to convert her name into sumptuous cakes and meals. Asking her about what inspires her to cook, she answered that, money inspires her a lot. Initially, the idea was to please her husband through cooking for him to love her more, but as she cooked for his visitors and family at gatherings, it became a passion.
She also added that she cooks smart at home. She barely takes a lot of time to finish preparing food. Catering comes with a wide range of responsibilities, attention to details, planning meals according to a customer’s taste and preferences and as such, one must be ready to stay in overloaded heat. One must be ready to work while others are sleeping, so when a customer is not willing to pay for all these efforts, working for them does not motivate her at all.
In 5 years, Naana intends to have other branches in Kumasi and Volta Region, also boast of a good and skillful managerial team to handle affairs whiles she takes care of other matters. One of her most memorable moments as a caterer was a job to cater for a funeral at Ejisu. Catering for a funeral at Ejisu Besease, that was a huge task, catered for close to 800 heads, Friday-Sunday. Taking orders from unknown family members was hectic so I had to fall on a colleague caterer to assist only the Saturday cooking since I needed the right hands to support the process.
A major set back is the fact that she combines office work with her private job. Also, you always encounter some difficult customers but once you win them over with your sweet talks and excellent service, they are the best for growth. Some of the challenges are overcome through communicating clearly, listening well and sampling. Another hurtful experience was when she mistakenly spelt a client’s name wrongly on a cake. She had to immediately refund the customer.
She concluded that all these experiences, whether good or bad, are essential to one’s growth in the event space. It is up to you to still forge ahead with your eyes on the prize and work hard towards your goal and aspirations.
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